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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Good Stuff.

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Speaker 2: I'm Jacob Shick and I'm joined by my co host

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Speaker 2: and wife, Ashley Shick.

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Speaker 3: Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a

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Speaker 3: gold Star granddaughter. We work together to serve military veterans,

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Speaker 3: first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental

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Speaker 3: and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy. At

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Speaker 3: One Tribe Foundation, we.

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Speaker 2: Believe everyone has a story to tell, not only about

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Speaker 2: the peaks, but also the valleys they've been through to

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Speaker 2: get them to where they are today.

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Speaker 3: Each week, we invite a guest to tell us their story,

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Speaker 3: to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped

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Speaker 3: who they are and what they're doing to pay it

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Speaker 3: forward and give back.

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Speaker 2: Our mission with this show is to dig deep into

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Speaker 2: our guest's journey so that we can celebrate the hope

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Speaker 2: and inspiration their story has to offer.

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Speaker 3: We're thrilled you're joining us again.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Good Stuff. Today, we're joined by celebrating

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Speaker 2: Chef Wes Leeberherd. Chef West has made his mark on

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Speaker 2: the culinary world in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Germany, and now

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Speaker 2: in Illinois. You may have seen him featured in diners,

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Speaker 2: drive ins, and dives for his infamous menu at Beer

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Speaker 2: Belly in LA's k Town. He's also made multiple appearances

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Speaker 2: on The Food Network, the Travel Channel, and ABC.

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Speaker 3: But before Wes embraced his skills in the kitchen, he

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Speaker 3: grew up in the punk rock scene of Philly in

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Speaker 3: the early nineties. This took him down a wild road

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Speaker 3: which led him to being the lead singer in the

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Speaker 3: band Kill Verona. This punk rock life meant that the

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Speaker 3: volume was maxed out to the extreme, and at a

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Speaker 3: critical juncture in his career, West developed Tonightis.

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Speaker 2: For anyone who doesn't know tonightas is an uncontrollable ringing

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Speaker 2: in their ears, and it's the gift that keeps on giving.

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Speaker 2: In a very negative light, there.

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Speaker 1: Is no cure.

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Speaker 2: This condition pushed West to the edge literally and it

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Speaker 2: almost caused him to take his own life.

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Speaker 3: Today, Chef West is here to tell the story of

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Speaker 3: his rock and roll adventures and how Tonightis robbed him

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Speaker 3: of his dreams, drove him to the brink of suicide,

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Speaker 3: and then eventually led him to a life full of

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Speaker 3: great food, beautiful children, and his amazing wife.

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Speaker 2: Free This dude is awesome. We can't wait for you

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Speaker 2: to hear his story.

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Speaker 3: We are so excited to have Chef wes Leeberher with

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Speaker 3: us today.

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Speaker 1: Chef, welcome to the good stuff. Thank you, it's good

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Speaker 1: to be here.

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Speaker 3: Tell us about growing up in your house in North Philly.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, My childhood was rough. You know. It's crazy

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Speaker 1: when you get older, you know, you look back and

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Speaker 1: there's you try to remember, like details. I always think

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Speaker 1: about with my kids. I'm like, are they going to

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Speaker 1: remember this? I try to give him experiences that they'll remember,

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Speaker 1: and most of the stuff I remember isn't good. So

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Speaker 1: my dad was a cop. He became a police officer

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Speaker 1: when I was one. I think the job made him

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Speaker 1: a little untrusting and angry. You know, he's going out,

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Speaker 1: he's dealing with the scum of the earth every day.

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Speaker 1: For the most part, him and my mom were getting along,

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Speaker 1: so there was a lot of violent yelling. I was

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Speaker 1: never abused, which is great, but the relationship between my

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Speaker 1: dad and my mom was pretty horrible. Then he cheated

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Speaker 1: on her and left. Even after he had left the house,

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Speaker 1: he lived probably like a mile not even a mile

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Speaker 1: from us, and didn't see him as much as I

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Speaker 1: should have. I think he made He was embarrassed by

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Speaker 1: his apartment that he first had. He lived above this

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Speaker 1: old grocery store, and like the stairs to his back

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Speaker 1: door had like holes in it. You had to like

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Speaker 1: make sure he didn't fall to the ground and die.

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Speaker 1: So I think he was a little embarrassed about that.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, it just got worse and worse when my

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Speaker 1: mom tried to kind of put up boundaries and tell

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Speaker 1: him he can't come in the house anymore, and it

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Speaker 1: just made him more mad and little more like angry.

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Speaker 1: And I saw a lot of stuff that I shouldn't

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Speaker 1: have seen as far as anger goes. And that translated

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Speaker 1: to me as a kid, seeing how my dad used

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Speaker 1: to you know, shake and he was a scary dude.

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Speaker 1: He's super tough. I love him, you know, get along

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Speaker 1: really well now, but he was a scary guy. And

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Speaker 1: it translated into me in my teenage years, like being

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Speaker 1: super angry and you know, wanting to fight the world.

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Speaker 1: And even into my twenties when I was playing music

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Speaker 1: and going to shows, I was getting in fights all

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Speaker 1: the time. And this is an angry.

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Speaker 3: Kid, man, No, that's what you'd seen growing up.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it almost felt normal. Maybe it was part of

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Speaker 1: me was trying to feel that acceptance being tough. You know,

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Speaker 1: I was always never let anybody touch you. If they do,

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Speaker 1: you hit them harder, you know, that whole thing. So

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Speaker 1: you know, there was a lot of that. And it's

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Speaker 1: crazy when you get older and you go through all

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Speaker 1: these traumas and relationships and you have your own kids,

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Speaker 1: and then you look back and you're like, man, I

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Speaker 1: was just the whole time. I just wanted my dad

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Speaker 1: like acknowledge me. And we have a good relationship now.

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Speaker 1: You know. I don't talk about this a lot, but

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Speaker 1: you know, if I'm being honest, it's like I say

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Speaker 1: to my wife sometimes it's like I've never you know,

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Speaker 1: he's never looked me in the eyes and been like,

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Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you, man, I love you. Even

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Speaker 1: though I think he is. I know that he is.

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Speaker 1: He's just not that kind of guy. But it would

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Speaker 1: be really cool to hear him say it because I

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Speaker 1: say it to my kids all time. I always tell

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Speaker 1: them I'm proud of them and I love them, and God,

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Speaker 1: you're such a big part of my life. I think

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Speaker 1: now he feels it. But you know, there's a part

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Speaker 1: of me that's like I just want you to say

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Speaker 1: it in old bastards.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's that acknowledgment.

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Speaker 3: Man.

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Speaker 2: I mean I feel like all of us as adults,

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Speaker 2: we have that kid inside of us still, the innergladiator

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Speaker 2: is connected to all the above, and I think that's

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Speaker 2: what drives us through the good or the bad, or

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Speaker 2: to do good or to do bad, and we're looking

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Speaker 2: for outlets. I mean, that's one thing that you know,

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Speaker 2: I say to Ashevi all the time about the boys,

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Speaker 2: is like, look, they're never ever gonna wonder how much

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Speaker 2: we love them. At least we have that going for us.

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Speaker 2: Not that we're going to kill it on everything else

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Speaker 2: because we won't. We'll mess up our parents, but they'll

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Speaker 2: never question how much they're loved. And I think that's

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Speaker 2: pretty indicative too of you know, even though you were

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Speaker 2: in Philly and you know, we were down in the South,

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Speaker 2: like it was pretty kind of the mo just the

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Speaker 2: way it went like there, there wasn't a lot of

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Speaker 2: physical connection, there wasn't a lot of verbal affirmation. It

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Speaker 2: was just kind of like, hey, you're expected to just

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Speaker 2: toughen up, be better and be fine. Don't worry about

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Speaker 2: that thing, just move on.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, very generational I think I think our generation is

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Speaker 1: like the first one that's kind of like part of

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Speaker 1: both worlds where we're like we grew up with our

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Speaker 1: parents are like, don't what are you doing? Just be

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Speaker 1: just get out of here and do something, and we're like,

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Speaker 1: come back to the street.

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Speaker 3: Lights come on.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and now we're finally like, wait a minute, we

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Speaker 1: can tell our kids we love them. It's okay, doesn't

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Speaker 1: make us weak or anything. So there was a couple

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Speaker 1: of incidents when I was a kid because of you know,

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Speaker 1: what was going on at my house, that I was

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Speaker 1: doubled over in pain in my side. It happened twice.

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Speaker 1: My mom thought I had appendicitis, so they rushed me

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Speaker 1: to the hospital. Doctors are feeling my side and they're

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Speaker 1: basically like, oh, yeah, he's got a pendicitis. And I remember,

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Speaker 1: because I'll never eat apple cinnamon cheerios ever again ever

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Speaker 1: in my life. They were like, Okay, if he can

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Speaker 1: keep this down, he can go home. So I ate

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Speaker 1: the apple cinnamon cheerios and I threw up. So I

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Speaker 1: had to stay overnight in the hospital. You know, they

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Speaker 1: did some tests on me, blah blah blah, and then

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Speaker 1: they kind of determined that it was because of stress

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Speaker 1: and ulcers. That kind of figured out timing wise, Like

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Speaker 1: when some incidents happened in my house when I was

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Speaker 1: a kid, it was physically showing itself in me. I

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Speaker 1: didn't know. I didn't know it was even affecting me

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Speaker 1: that badly, but now I do. But I feel bad

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Speaker 1: for that kid now that I'm at peace with it.

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Speaker 1: I wish I wish somebody My mom was always there

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Speaker 1: for me. You know, she was a victim, and she

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Speaker 1: was always worried about what was happening with her, and

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Speaker 1: she was kind of consumed with that what he was

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Speaker 1: doing and what was happening to her. If I could

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Speaker 1: take a time machine to one place, it would be

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Speaker 1: to my house when I was a kid, just to

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Speaker 1: give myself a hug and be like, Yo, you got this, bro,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna be okay. That'd be pretty cool.

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Speaker 3: But now you're paying that forward and you're doing it

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Speaker 3: for your own kids.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know what, I look at my kids

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, how, you know, I don't understand how

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Speaker 1: anyone could treat their kids poorly. It's crazy. It's crazy

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Speaker 1: how there's so much child abuse in the world, and

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Speaker 1: like human trafficking and all this crazy stuff. And it's

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Speaker 1: like I look at my kids and I'm like, man,

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Speaker 1: do are the greatest things ever? And I just want

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Speaker 1: to just squeeze them every two seconds and just you know,

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Speaker 1: I like think about them and cry and sometimes just

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Speaker 1: because I love them so much, and I just.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I relate. I mean, it's one of those things.

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Speaker 2: I'd still friends who are about to be parents for

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Speaker 2: the first time. I'm gonna be like, you think you

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Speaker 2: think you knew about true luck, Yeah, You're about to

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Speaker 2: have a completely different understanding.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and then they start sassing you when they get older. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: then they get nothing better.

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Speaker 3: Yea.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's okay, it's all right. I still love them.

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Speaker 1: I played sports every year. I ran track, I ran

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Speaker 1: played football. I was captaining a football team, also listened.

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Speaker 1: I was like a punk rock jock, which was weird

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Speaker 1: because I was going to shows on the weekend, taking

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Speaker 1: the subway to Philly, and then playing sports, which kept

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Speaker 1: me out of trouble. I didn't drink or do anything

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Speaker 1: in high school when a lot of my friends were

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Speaker 1: skateboarding doing drugs, so I was trying to stay away

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Speaker 1: from that. When I got out of high school. I

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Speaker 1: went to art school for a couple of years, and

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Speaker 1: because I love to paint, love to draw, but I

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Speaker 1: just it just made me hate art because it was

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Speaker 1: some guy saying this is the way you got to draw,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, that's not the way I draw. I

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Speaker 1: don't want to draw like that. So I was like,

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Speaker 1: screw this, you know, and I dropped out for music.

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Speaker 1: Started a band that was the thing. I finally realized,

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Speaker 1: you know, that's this is what I want to do.

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Speaker 1: When I was thirteen, one of my first punk rock shows,

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Speaker 1: I went to see this band called Bad Religion, very

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Speaker 1: legendary punk rock band from California, and there was a

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Speaker 1: band opening up for them that nobody had heard about

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Speaker 1: yet named green Day. Wow. Yeah, nineteen ninety three. It

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Speaker 1: was like the year before they broke and me and

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Speaker 1: my friend had snuck in glow sticks for some reason,

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Speaker 1: I have no idea why. My friend was like, hey,

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Speaker 1: let's bring these glow sticks to the show. We put

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Speaker 1: them in our.

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Speaker 2: As a marine, I will say, because they're freaking amazing.

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Speaker 1: Oh, it probably life saving for you. But yeah, we

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Speaker 1: snuck him in our shoes and Green Day was playing,

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Speaker 1: and I broke one open and I threw it on

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Speaker 1: stage and I hit Billy Joe the singer with the

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Speaker 1: glove stick, and he picked it up and he goes, oh, kryptonite.

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Speaker 1: I think I'll keep this, and like that show like

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Speaker 1: that happening, and then Bad Religion playing. I was like,

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Speaker 1: that's what I want to do. I want to be

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Speaker 1: a singer. I want to be in a punk rock band.

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Speaker 1: And that changed my life because started going to shows

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Speaker 1: every weekend, met all these kids who were, like you said,

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Speaker 1: from terrible backgrounds, even like Saw worse than mine. And

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Speaker 1: we became this big family and basically raised ourselves. And

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Speaker 1: once I graduated high school, we all moved in together.

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Speaker 1: We had four houses planted all over Philadelphia. Each house

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Speaker 1: had like six people in it. In our early twenties.

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Speaker 1: That was our big, huge family. So I was I

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Speaker 1: was a bike messenger in Philly while I was playing

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Speaker 1: my band and stuff. So then we started getting a

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Speaker 1: lot of shows and getting a lot of note already

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Speaker 1: on the East Coast and any of those early two

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Speaker 1: thousands emo type bands like Taking Back Sunday, We've played

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Speaker 1: with all of them. We know most of those guys,

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Speaker 1: you know. That was like our scene. We were there

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Speaker 1: in the beginning, and that was like I wanted to do.

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Speaker 3: You know, what was it about music that really called you?

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Speaker 1: I think, you know, it always took a lot for

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Speaker 1: me to get close to people, but when once you're

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Speaker 1: close to me, I'm like, you're like, dude, you're crazy.

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Speaker 1: But I don't let people in it right away. Most

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Speaker 1: people that meet me right away they're like, it's so quiet,

256
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Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm really not quiet. I just don't

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Speaker 1: trust you yet, you know. So once I started playing

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Speaker 1: music and I got comfortable on stage and started writing

259
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Speaker 1: these songs, and it was the first time I ever

260
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Speaker 1: felt like myself, like that's the person who's on stage,

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Speaker 1: that's me, like totally out of my shell, comfortable. Like

262
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Speaker 1: we were known for just like going crazy. People always said,

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Speaker 1: if you like put our band on TV and turn

264
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Speaker 1: the volume down, you think we were like a metal

265
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Speaker 1: band because we were just like you know. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: that was like total freedom for me. And then once

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Speaker 1: I started writing songs, and then I'd see these younger

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Speaker 1: kids come to our shows and they're singing my lyrics

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Speaker 1: back to me, like wow, with like more like vigor

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Speaker 1: than I like I'm doing it with and I'm like,

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Speaker 1: it's the best feeling in the world. Your experience that

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Speaker 1: you wrote about is helping these kids that are just

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Speaker 1: like you. I've gotten emails from kids saying, like, your

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Speaker 1: lyrics saved my life. You know, I was going through

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Speaker 1: a hard time. Thank you for everything, And it's the

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Speaker 1: greatest feeling in the whole world.

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Speaker 3: Music is something you can truly connect to that can

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Speaker 3: really drive your emotions one way or another. It can

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Speaker 3: take you back to a moment, it can encourage you,

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Speaker 3: it can lift you up, it can bring you down,

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Speaker 3: it can meet you right where you are. Music is

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Speaker 3: such a powerful and emotional thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I just always likes to tell me that my playlists

285
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Speaker 2: it's like the most schizophrenic playlist on the planet because

286
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Speaker 2: I have everything that you could think of and it

287
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Speaker 2: just depends on my mood. Yeah, it completely depends on

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Speaker 2: my mood. But you know, music is you know, it

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00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:06,160
Speaker 2: can be a safe place or it can be a

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Speaker 2: place that can feed the negative too, and everything in between.

291
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Speaker 2: And what's cool is regardless of this genre that somebody's into,

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Speaker 2: they can absolutely relate to what we're talking about. Oh yeah,

293
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Speaker 2: that's what's so cool about it. And the fact that

294
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Speaker 2: you got to do it, and you got to hear

295
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Speaker 2: these kids singing your lyrics back to you and sending

296
00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:28,200
Speaker 2: you emails. Did that spiritual stuff right there, That's something

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Speaker 2: that a very small percentage of the world ever gets

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Speaker 2: to experience.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I look back and it's what

300
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Speaker 1: I wanted to do for my life. It didn't work out.

301
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Speaker 1: Because of what happened to me and what I accomplished.

302
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Speaker 1: Not many people can say that they did. You know,

303
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Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that can get on stage

304
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Speaker 1: with a band and play some cover songs and stuff

305
00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:52,360
Speaker 1: like that, which is fine, But like, just to affect

306
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Speaker 1: one person in a positive way, for me, it's totally

307
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Speaker 1: worth it.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely if all the work we do and all the

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Speaker 2: grinding and all the travel and speaking and all of it,

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Speaker 2: if it makes one person decide, hey, you know what

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Speaker 2: this life is worth living, that it was all worth it.

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Speaker 1: I totally agree.

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Speaker 3: And so as Jake you know, alluded to, it doesn't

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Speaker 3: matter the genre. So I listened to old Country on vinyl,

315
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Speaker 3: so I know nothing about the Philly punk rock scene

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Speaker 3: in the nineties. Paint that picture because I really school us.

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Speaker 1: Stuff on that. It was such a cool, unique place

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Speaker 1: where you know, you have all these kids from different backgrounds.

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Speaker 1: You know, you got black kids, White kids, Mexican kids,

320
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Speaker 1: Asian kids, all becoming this big family around this music.

321
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Speaker 1: It was just a really good feeling. I mean. And

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Speaker 1: in Philadelphia and the late nineties early two thousands, there

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Speaker 1: was a lot of Nazis coming into from Atlantic City.

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Speaker 1: There was this gang called the acy Skins, so their

325
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Speaker 1: Nazis would come to the punk rock shows. You would

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Speaker 1: get in fights with them all the time. It's like

327
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Speaker 1: a big thing in the punk rock scene where it's

328
00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:06,920
Speaker 1: like you have these certain types of punk raft bands

329
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Speaker 1: that attract that kind of person like Nazis, and every

330
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Speaker 1: once in a while one of those bands will play

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Speaker 1: with another band that attracts people like me who are

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Speaker 1: like unified with everybody, and you know there's Nazis. We

333
00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:24,080
Speaker 1: could possibly go wrong. Yeah, So there were a lot

334
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Speaker 1: of There were a lot of fights, a lot of drama.

335
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Speaker 1: We started making these little they would call them cruise

336
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Speaker 1: some people would call them gangs, but it's not. It's

337
00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:37,040
Speaker 1: like a music crew, but in a sense it's similar

338
00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:39,760
Speaker 1: where it's like we had to like band together to

339
00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:42,720
Speaker 1: protect ourselves. There was fights all the time some of

340
00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:46,400
Speaker 1: my friends got you know, hurt really bad. The Nazi

341
00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:49,520
Speaker 1: used to threaten us on MySpace of all places. I'm like, well,

342
00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:52,760
Speaker 1: of course, of course a Nazi with threaten our lives

343
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Speaker 1: on my Space. It was just the corniest thing ever.

344
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Speaker 2: You got to love those keyboard Warriors exactly so tough,

345
00:16:59,600 --> 00:16:59,760
Speaker 2: you know.

346
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Speaker 1: We started these little crews and that kind of put

347
00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:07,439
Speaker 1: us in a group together and kind of kept us safe.

348
00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:10,480
Speaker 1: Like if one of us got in trouble, there'd be

349
00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:13,960
Speaker 1: twenty thirty people there within seconds to help them. So

350
00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:17,600
Speaker 1: and for the most part, everybody was Most of the

351
00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:20,240
Speaker 1: kids were straight edged, didn't drink, do drugs or anything

352
00:17:20,320 --> 00:17:23,119
Speaker 1: like that. It was cool. It was like a big family.

353
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Speaker 1: Wasn't the smartest thing to fight all the time, but

354
00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:28,720
Speaker 1: most of the time you fight at shows. We know,

355
00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:31,560
Speaker 1: like the bouncers at all the shows in Philly were like,

356
00:17:31,600 --> 00:17:34,200
Speaker 1: are the guys that brought us up in the scene.

357
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Speaker 1: Even if we started the fight, they would kick the

358
00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:43,520
Speaker 1: other person out anyways, and we'd just be like, yeah.

359
00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:47,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, I loved fighting. And the reason being the reason

360
00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:50,320
Speaker 2: I loved it was because it masked my emotional pain.

361
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Speaker 2: I would rather feel the physical pain and it got

362
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Speaker 2: to where I got addicted to it. The physical pain.

363
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Speaker 2: It drove me, and it was like the more I got,

364
00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:03,280
Speaker 2: the more I wanted it. I bet you you're kind

365
00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:04,480
Speaker 2: of similar in.

366
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Speaker 1: That there's very few feelings in the world that are

367
00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:14,200
Speaker 1: better than knocking somebody out. Seriously, it's like it's brotherly

368
00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:15,560
Speaker 1: love right there there.

369
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Speaker 3: It is.

370
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:20,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's just it's a it's just a thing. Yeah.

371
00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:22,080
Speaker 3: So life took a sudden shift for you when you

372
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Speaker 3: developed tonitis in your early twenties.

373
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Speaker 1: Yep. My band was we always turned up to eleven.

374
00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:32,800
Speaker 1: We used to practice in this little tiny space and

375
00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:35,160
Speaker 1: you got amps, you got drums, I'm in there singing.

376
00:18:36,119 --> 00:18:39,200
Speaker 1: Definitely not the smartest thing in the world. And when

377
00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:43,680
Speaker 1: you're younger, you think you're indestructible and you think nothing

378
00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:47,359
Speaker 1: can happen to you. My friend of mine, who's a

379
00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,360
Speaker 1: bass player, guitar player, I remember his dad was in

380
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:52,520
Speaker 1: one of our practices and he was like, you guys

381
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:55,200
Speaker 1: wear you guys gotta wear your plugs, and I'm like, whatever,

382
00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:58,640
Speaker 1: wrap so what all go deaf? One day had no idea,

383
00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:01,359
Speaker 1: you know. It was younger and going to shows and

384
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:04,119
Speaker 1: my ears would ring after a show and then they

385
00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:06,240
Speaker 1: would then it would stop, and I'm like, oh, that's

386
00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:11,080
Speaker 1: totally normal. And then one day after a show was

387
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:13,200
Speaker 1: ringing again. And then the next day I'm like, wait

388
00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:15,520
Speaker 1: a minute, still there, and I like plug. I plugged

389
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,480
Speaker 1: my fingers in my ears, and I'm like, oh shit,

390
00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:22,720
Speaker 1: it's still there. That's weird. Okay, that's kind of scary.

391
00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,880
Speaker 1: A couple of months later, one day just turned up

392
00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:33,800
Speaker 1: super loud, just completely. It was like and I'm like,

393
00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:38,920
Speaker 1: what the hell, Like, what's happening? And it didn't stop.

394
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:41,919
Speaker 1: It didn't stop for I didn't sleep for a month,

395
00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:45,120
Speaker 1: and it was so stressful because of course I start

396
00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:48,680
Speaker 1: looking it up, like what is this? I had no

397
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:51,280
Speaker 1: I had no clue I got. I was totally ignorant

398
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:54,439
Speaker 1: and just I had no idea what it was called

399
00:19:54,840 --> 00:20:00,119
Speaker 1: tonight is tendus people say different. Started learning about it,

400
00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:04,679
Speaker 1: went to the doctor. The doctor was like, you know,

401
00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:06,480
Speaker 1: I hate to tell you this, so you gotta take

402
00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:09,399
Speaker 1: care of your ears. It's probably never gonna go away.

403
00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:12,480
Speaker 1: Sometimes it could get better. They were like, you got

404
00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:15,879
Speaker 1: a pretty severe case, and it's gotten worse over the years.

405
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:18,920
Speaker 1: A lot of times people just have like one ear

406
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:21,560
Speaker 1: or both, and it's one sound. I have like five

407
00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:24,639
Speaker 1: or six different sounds in my head at all times.

408
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:30,160
Speaker 1: It was like probably a month or two later, and

409
00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:33,320
Speaker 1: it was just I had been drinking to like try

410
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:36,320
Speaker 1: to make myself go to sleep, a lot of crying

411
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:42,040
Speaker 1: thinking about how I had started another band with some

412
00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:45,120
Speaker 1: of my best friends and we were actually making demos

413
00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:49,640
Speaker 1: because this an r REP from Interscope Records was interested

414
00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:53,199
Speaker 1: in us, and I'm like, oh, God, like I just

415
00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:56,959
Speaker 1: gotta like we gotta get signed or something. I don't know,

416
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:00,800
Speaker 1: maybe this could go away. I didn't know. It's so

417
00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:04,320
Speaker 1: stressed out about it. And it got to the point

418
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:07,199
Speaker 1: where I realized that no matter what I did, I

419
00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:10,199
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't be able to keep playing music. It was

420
00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:14,280
Speaker 1: all I dreamt about since I was thirteen years old. Sorry,

421
00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:18,040
Speaker 1: I got a lot a little emotional about it. No

422
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:24,200
Speaker 1: being human. So yeah. So I was at a girl

423
00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:27,800
Speaker 1: I was dating's apartment. She lived in an apartment building Philly,

424
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,600
Speaker 1: kind of like pretty high up, and I went on

425
00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:35,200
Speaker 1: a roof at night because we used to sit out

426
00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,919
Speaker 1: there and like hang out and talk and stuff. So

427
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,800
Speaker 1: she was asleep. I went out there. I was just

428
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:46,520
Speaker 1: hadn't slept in a while, crying my eyes out, and

429
00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:49,720
Speaker 1: just walked to the ledge and I was like, fuck it,

430
00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:52,600
Speaker 1: let's just gonna do it.

431
00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:57,520
Speaker 2: And hey, just sudden my own curiosity shift.

432
00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:00,320
Speaker 1: Were you sober at the time, Do you remember I

433
00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:03,399
Speaker 1: was probably hungover? No, or I don't think I was

434
00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:06,480
Speaker 1: like drunk drunk. I think i'd had a couple of beers,

435
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:09,840
Speaker 1: because if I was really drunk, I probably just fell

436
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,520
Speaker 1: off and I wouldn't be here talking to you. But

437
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:16,560
Speaker 1: my son was my firstborn son. He was about I

438
00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:19,640
Speaker 1: think he was about two at the time, and I'm

439
00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:23,240
Speaker 1: sitting there crying. I'm thinking about him, Mike, you can't

440
00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:25,080
Speaker 1: do you can't do this to him. You can't do

441
00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:29,360
Speaker 1: this to him. But you know that I'm not sleeping

442
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:35,000
Speaker 1: for three months really well at all. I'm like delirious,

443
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:38,960
Speaker 1: just heartbroke a Yeah, it was driving me crazy, like

444
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,480
Speaker 1: I felt insane. I felt it's like torture. It's basically

445
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:45,159
Speaker 1: like someone like I was just about to say the

446
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:48,400
Speaker 1: same thing. It sounds like a form of torture for sure. Yeah,

447
00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:51,640
Speaker 1: I have tonight is but not like you at all. Yeah.

448
00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:53,959
Speaker 1: I know a lot of military people get it.

449
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I can't imagine. It's not constant for me,

450
00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:01,280
Speaker 2: Like it'll come and go the ring right, like, I'll

451
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:03,000
Speaker 2: hear it for a minute. I'm like, oh, hey, tonight,

452
00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:05,439
Speaker 2: I just think you saying hi, and just wait for

453
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:09,080
Speaker 2: it to subside, then it goes away. I cannot imagine, dude,

454
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:12,840
Speaker 2: And you have five to six different sounds and tones constantly.

455
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:15,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got real close. I got real close. And

456
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:17,840
Speaker 1: then I was like, you can't do this to your son.

457
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,879
Speaker 1: Can't do it to them. So I pulled myself together

458
00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:24,480
Speaker 1: over the next couple of months. You know, I'd always

459
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 1: been cooking. I was always pretty good at cooking in restaurants,

460
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 1: you know, reliable cook, blah blah blah. And I was like,

461
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:32,159
Speaker 1: all right, I guess we're just gonna have to focus

462
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:35,040
Speaker 1: on that and see where we can take it. I've

463
00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:37,879
Speaker 1: always been the kind of person that's I'm not satisfied

464
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:41,879
Speaker 1: with just being a normal, average, everyday person. I can't

465
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:44,680
Speaker 1: just go to work and be like, I got myself

466
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:48,200
Speaker 1: a job, man, this is this is great. You know

467
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:50,480
Speaker 1: what I mean, which is there's nothing wrong with that.

468
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:53,400
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I totally get what you're saying, dude, because

469
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 2: I talk to honests all the time, or I'll tell

470
00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:57,800
Speaker 2: them like, hey, listen, this is gonna be in your

471
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:00,199
Speaker 2: face because that's just how I roll. I just I

472
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:03,480
Speaker 2: spit truth and that's it. And I don't wake up

473
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,400
Speaker 2: and go out of my way to be average, because

474
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:07,880
Speaker 2: what's the point of getting out of.

475
00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 1: Bed exactly exactly. It's like, I'll never be satisfied with

476
00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:15,240
Speaker 1: just having an everyday, nine to five job. I always

477
00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 1: want to do something. I always wanted to do something

478
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 1: great and affect people and do good for the world

479
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:24,320
Speaker 1: and my kids and all that stuff, especially coming from

480
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:28,400
Speaker 1: a poor family and not really having much just being

481
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:33,360
Speaker 1: able to just do something cool that people are like, hey, man,

482
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 1: like I appreciate what you do, and so I had

483
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:39,400
Speaker 1: to do something. So I'm like, all right, I'll start

484
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:43,520
Speaker 1: taking cooking seriously, and I started reading books and got

485
00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:47,040
Speaker 1: a job as a soous chef and practice and practice.

486
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 1: My head chef at the time was a huge coke head,

487
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:53,520
Speaker 1: so he was always late for work, so I basically

488
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: had to do his work for him all the time.

489
00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 1: So I started learning like really rapidly because because he

490
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 1: was late like every day, he eventually got f That's.

491
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:05,679
Speaker 2: Like literal baptized by fire. Yeah, like literal yeah. So

492
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:09,080
Speaker 2: I learned a lot. It went pretty quickly. I mean

493
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:12,800
Speaker 2: from the time I started taking it seriously. Within two years,

494
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 2: I had gone to the owners of the restaurant I

495
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,680
Speaker 2: worked at in Philly, Vintage. Their names are Jason and Delphine.

496
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:20,840
Speaker 2: It's a couple now they have a whole fleet of

497
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:23,720
Speaker 2: restaurants in Philly. They're the most amazing people in the

498
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,959
Speaker 2: whole world. I owe them everything as far as my

499
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,960
Speaker 2: cooking career goes. Because I went to them not knowing

500
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:32,680
Speaker 2: what the hell I was doing. I was like, please,

501
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,000
Speaker 2: let me be executive chef. I was like, I don't

502
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:37,720
Speaker 2: do a good job, you guys can fire me. I'll

503
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 2: put my whole job on the line. So they said, sure, yeah,

504
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:42,359
Speaker 2: give it a shot. You know, I did it. I

505
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:44,200
Speaker 2: was pretty good at it. I would look back now,

506
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:48,200
Speaker 2: I was like, you weren't that good that they still

507
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 2: gave me a shot.

508
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 1: A couple of years later, got better, and then some

509
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 1: of my friends were like, yeah, we got an opportunity

510
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 1: in California for you to help us open something. And

511
00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 1: another one of my buddies was get married. My friend Joel,

512
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:05,439
Speaker 1: he's in good Charlotte. He's marrying Nicole Ritchie, and he

513
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:07,439
Speaker 1: was like, hey, you want to do the menu for

514
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:10,680
Speaker 1: my wedding. So I was kind of like, okay, Universe,

515
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: I'm listening to you. I got this opportunity. Things were

516
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:16,920
Speaker 1: going so great in Philly, just a lot of like

517
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 1: relationship issues and just not good personal stuff. So I

518
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 1: was like, all right, I'll go out there and see

519
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:29,639
Speaker 1: what I can do because I just didn't see my

520
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 1: steps in Philly getting bigger. What am I going to

521
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 1: do here? I always wanted to do something cool, and

522
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 1: I was like, I'll go to California try to make

523
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:43,080
Speaker 1: something happen. Took a chance, packed up my car, went

524
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:47,959
Speaker 1: out there. So my buddies want to dude. They were like, Yo,

525
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:50,479
Speaker 1: we're going to open this business. Come on, you know.

526
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:52,879
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm going to quit my job. So

527
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:56,400
Speaker 1: guys got to pay me because, you know, they because

528
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:57,800
Speaker 1: they needed me to do stuff for them.

529
00:26:57,840 --> 00:26:58,040
Speaker 2: You know.

530
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:02,680
Speaker 1: I drove out to California from Philly to LA got there.

531
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 1: They were like, Oh, we're so glad you're here. We

532
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: can't pay you, but we're so glad you're here. I

533
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,600
Speaker 1: was like, what, I got a couple of credit cards,

534
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:16,320
Speaker 1: bought some stuff. We all found an apartment together in Hollywood.

535
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 1: We drew straws for bedrooms. I got to short straw,

536
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: so I was living in the living room basically in

537
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:26,200
Speaker 1: this apartment in Hollywood. Awesome. Though it was on Hollywood Boulevard,

538
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 1: like like you could see the Hollywood sign. It was

539
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:32,400
Speaker 1: like pretty crazy. It was like, wow, not the best

540
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 1: living conditions. I'm not making any money. I'm so poor.

541
00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 1: We were living off seven to eleven pizza and ice

542
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:42,639
Speaker 1: house beer. It's the most disgusting beer you could ever have,

543
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:45,480
Speaker 1: but it was like there was like a deal. You

544
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: get two thirty two ounces for five bucks, and then

545
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 1: the two dollars for two pieces of pizza sice. But

546
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 1: we were building this breakfast of champions.

547
00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 3: Yeah.

548
00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:00,199
Speaker 1: We were building this business in Hollywood basically for the

549
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:05,600
Speaker 1: ground up, Like we were renovating ourselves, making recipes, cooking

550
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,479
Speaker 1: all night. And then I'm like, well, I gotta make money.

551
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 1: So there's this burger place in Hollywood that's literally open

552
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: until five am. So I go there, even though I've

553
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:20,360
Speaker 1: already been an executive chef, I'm flipping burgers from eleven

554
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:24,960
Speaker 1: PM to five am and then getting up at eight

555
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:30,960
Speaker 1: am working on our new business. Through that business, the

556
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,000
Speaker 1: guy who I started at the restaurant in La Beer Belly,

557
00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:36,120
Speaker 1: the one that got really popular. I met him through

558
00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:38,440
Speaker 1: that business. He was like our best customer, one of

559
00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 1: our only customers, but he really liked it. So yeah.

560
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 1: He was like, I'm opening this bar in Koreatown in

561
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 1: the back of a parking lot, and I was like,

562
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:50,600
Speaker 1: oh cool, I'll come check it out. I remember he

563
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 1: was showing me around and the kitchen was set up

564
00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 1: so weird, and I remember thinking like, oh man, the

565
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: chef that works here is gonna hate this skitchen. And

566
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 1: then two months later I was like, I'm gonna come

567
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 1: work for you. I like your concept, so yeah, he's yeah.

568
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 1: He was like I want to do beer and I was.

569
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:11,400
Speaker 1: He was like, I want you to do some La

570
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,360
Speaker 1: inspired food. I was like, let's just do over the

571
00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 1: top comfort food, super bad for you, because LA when

572
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: I got there twenty ten, it was super healthy. Everyone

573
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: went to Salid. I was like, let's just let's make

574
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: the greasiest, like just gut busting food. He was like,

575
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 1: all right, let's do it. And then you know, a

576
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:35,640
Speaker 1: year later, we're taping diner drivings and dives and it's

577
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:39,880
Speaker 1: just yeah. And once that aired, when they approached us,

578
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:42,719
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, you got to give us twelve recipes

579
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 1: that you want to feature on the show. So I

580
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: give them twelve recipes. They picked three and then when

581
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 1: they say, oh, you guys made it on the show,

582
00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 1: they go congratulations and You're like, oh cool, thanks. They

583
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 1: like you had no idea?

584
00:29:56,760 --> 00:29:57,320
Speaker 2: What them? No?

585
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 1: Like we when that show aired, there was a line

586
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 1: around the block. Like within six months, we had a

587
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:09,600
Speaker 1: front patio built onto the restaurant, at back patio built

588
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: onto the restaurant, and then it became like an La staple,

589
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 1: like everyone has been there. It's not there anymore. But

590
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 1: I mean it was open for I think eight years

591
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:23,840
Speaker 1: and it was just like it was crazy. Man, it

592
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:27,200
Speaker 1: was a whirlwind. I started getting Food Network show offers

593
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,040
Speaker 1: and like Traveled, we were on the Travel Channel and

594
00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 1: it felt like every other week there was like a

595
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: TV crew in there. It was cool. It's crazy how

596
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 1: now you know? It's like working where I do now.

597
00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 1: I run a hospital system. I got into that because

598
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 1: of COVID, and I make probably the best money I've

599
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:49,720
Speaker 1: ever made in my life. Right, I have healthcare. I

600
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 1: can go to a doctor whenever I want. Not the

601
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:55,800
Speaker 1: same notoriety at all, you know, I was. I did

602
00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: just do a Food Network show, which is awesome, but

603
00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:01,280
Speaker 1: like around Illinois, nobody knows, like in the restaurant world,

604
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 1: no me, just the fuck I am. And there's something

605
00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:04,920
Speaker 1: to be said about.

606
00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:06,480
Speaker 2: Having your anonymity everybody.

607
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I do like it now because the world

608
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: is different now, especially after COVID, like and then the

609
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:15,880
Speaker 1: more popular social media gets. I feel like people's attention

610
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 1: spans are like, even if you're well known, people won't

611
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: care about you tomorrow anyway. And then thinking back, it's

612
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 1: like I got all this notoriety in LA when beer

613
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: Belly was open, couldn't go the doctor because I didn't

614
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: have Hell's chairs. I was getting paid crap money. We

615
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 1: opened another Beer Belly and that's when I started making like,

616
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:39,480
Speaker 1: okay money, but it was like fighting tooth and nail

617
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: for every penny because it's your restaurant. And then I

618
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:46,360
Speaker 1: just ended up seeing this job for a company that

619
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 1: runs hospital food programs. Got the job and literally they

620
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,680
Speaker 1: give you your account and they're like, okay, we're taking

621
00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:57,040
Speaker 1: over this whole hospital system. You're gonna be in this hospital,

622
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,680
Speaker 1: but we're opening all these other ones, so we we

623
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 1: can't have all we can't really have anyone here with you.

624
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 1: And they're basically like, figure it out. I'm like, what

625
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 1: a chef that works in the hospital will tell you.

626
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 1: The amount of things that you order for a hospital is, Oh,

627
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 1: it's an astronomyst like fifty times more than a restaurant.

628
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 1: It's all these little things. And they were just like, yeah,

629
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:25,040
Speaker 1: figure it out, guy, Okay, I figured it out because

630
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: that's what I'm just good at stuff like that.

631
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:29,720
Speaker 3: I think about young kids when you ask them, what

632
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 3: do you want to be when you grow up? So

633
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 3: few were truly convicting. You know, I want to be

634
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 3: a professional football player, I want to be an astronaut,

635
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:38,240
Speaker 3: or I want to be a veterinarian. You knew what

636
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 3: you wanted to do from a young age, and then

637
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 3: unfortunate circumstances happened to you with your tonightis and you

638
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 3: were able to shift your entire focus and go be

639
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 3: great at something else. I mean, the perseverance that took

640
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 3: and the level of accomplishment that you've had at that's

641
00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 3: something else. When you look back on your story, do

642
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:03,320
Speaker 3: you feel fulfilled?

643
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 1: I did.

644
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 2: You know.

645
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 1: It's funny that he said it, because I was talking

646
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:08,880
Speaker 1: to my soux chef the other day. I've had, you know,

647
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:11,720
Speaker 1: many shoot soox chefs in my career. I still talk

648
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:13,800
Speaker 1: to all of them. They're they're like my little brothers,

649
00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of them are their executive chefs. Now,

650
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 1: my soux chef that I have now came to me

651
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 1: and he said that someone said he was good at

652
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: his job, and he didn't want to agree with him

653
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:29,120
Speaker 1: because he didn't want to be cocky. I said, it's

654
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:31,240
Speaker 1: not about being caught. You could be humble but be

655
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:33,720
Speaker 1: confident at the same time. And I started telling him

656
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:36,520
Speaker 1: about my story a little bit. I'm like, I think

657
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 1: back at all the stuff I've been through and all

658
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: the hard work I put in, like working for five

659
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:46,960
Speaker 1: dollars an hour, working for like peanuts, working ninety hours

660
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 1: a week in the hottest kitchen in the freaking world,

661
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I deserve to be here. I deserve

662
00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:57,479
Speaker 1: to do this job, and I'm good at it, and

663
00:33:57,520 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: I know I'm good at it, and I value it.

664
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 1: I don't take it for granted, and I'm okay with

665
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,239
Speaker 1: saying yes, like I'm good at my job and I

666
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:10,319
Speaker 1: know I can get better also, So that's the part

667
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:12,720
Speaker 1: where you know, I told him, like, you can still

668
00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:15,480
Speaker 1: say thank you. You know, I work really hard at

669
00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:18,279
Speaker 1: what I do and I deserve to be here, but

670
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 1: I'm also still trying to get better. So that's how

671
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:24,440
Speaker 1: I think of it. I used to hate cooking so much.

672
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 1: It was like an annoyance. I just want to go

673
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:30,320
Speaker 1: play a show. I got a ah. The first restaurant

674
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: I worked out was so busy, and I almost oh god,

675
00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:35,400
Speaker 1: it was I heard the ticket machine in my sleep,

676
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:39,520
Speaker 1: and it just was such a nuisance to me, you know.

677
00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 1: Once I was kind of forced into it. After my

678
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:45,799
Speaker 1: tonight is there was this one pivotal moment where it

679
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,520
Speaker 1: was the first time my chef was like, you're going

680
00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 1: to do this dinner for this party. You make the menu,

681
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:55,520
Speaker 1: you're gonna cook it, You're going to serve it to them.

682
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,239
Speaker 1: I did it, and then I went out. They called

683
00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:00,480
Speaker 1: me out to the table and the whole table for me,

684
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:03,560
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, this is kind of like

685
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 1: being a rock star. So that moment I realized, I

686
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:13,239
Speaker 1: was like, you know, it's not that different. There's a

687
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 1: lot of chefs that are like very studious. You know,

688
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:20,359
Speaker 1: they went to CIA and they're super smart and they

689
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,760
Speaker 1: know every little detail about food, and that's cool. That's

690
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:25,520
Speaker 1: just not me. I'm not that kind of chef. I

691
00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:28,440
Speaker 1: love to cook. I love to be creative. That's the

692
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:31,000
Speaker 1: part that I love. I love the creativity and I

693
00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:34,319
Speaker 1: love the experience. I love like being able to put

694
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:36,360
Speaker 1: something on a plate and someone eat it and be

695
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:38,760
Speaker 1: like oh, man, like that reminds me of my childhood

696
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:41,879
Speaker 1: and that's even better than what I had then, and

697
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 1: then being happy about it. So it's kind of a

698
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 1: performance in a way, and that's how I started to

699
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:49,000
Speaker 1: think about being a chef.

700
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:51,360
Speaker 3: That's a beautiful way to think of it, though.

701
00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:59,399
Speaker 2: I'm just grateful that we've gotten this opportunity with you. Man.

702
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:03,560
Speaker 2: You are in inspiration, bro, you really are. And it's

703
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:05,520
Speaker 2: really rad that you're in the place that you're in

704
00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:11,040
Speaker 2: after everything that you've been through. You know, it's admirable. Bro.

705
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:15,800
Speaker 3: Just thinking about that and thinking about the perseverance and

706
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:19,919
Speaker 3: the tenacity to push through to get through you think

707
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:21,840
Speaker 3: about that person that was standing on that roof that

708
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:26,680
Speaker 3: night completely changed his mind and where you are today,

709
00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:31,600
Speaker 3: What would you say to someone who's battling Tonightas or

710
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 3: anything that might have taken away what they thought was

711
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:35,800
Speaker 3: going to be their life's journey.

712
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:40,680
Speaker 1: Early on, I used to go on dyke to Tonightas

713
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:44,080
Speaker 1: message boards and stuff like that. But man, it's like

714
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 1: the most negative, depressing place ever. I mean a lot,

715
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:52,239
Speaker 1: so many like horrible stories, people talking about how like

716
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:55,239
Speaker 1: they got their nerves severed to get rid of this

717
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:58,120
Speaker 1: stuff and like so they can't hear anymore or whatever,

718
00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 1: and talking about the fear of like going deaf but

719
00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 1: still hearing the ringing. Like of course, those are all

720
00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: things in my head. And because there are times where

721
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,360
Speaker 1: my ears shift in a way, like you know, maybe

722
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:14,520
Speaker 1: like eight seven years ago, my ears started doing a

723
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 1: different thing. I started getting like a vibration in my

724
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:19,319
Speaker 1: head too, and the it was like and it was

725
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,120
Speaker 1: like another level. And I had a whole another like

726
00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:26,400
Speaker 1: two months of trying to cope with it and like depressed,

727
00:37:26,719 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 1: talking about doing shit to myself stuff like that, you know,

728
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 1: And then I would play you know, I play music

729
00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:35,560
Speaker 1: every couple of years, we'd have reunion shows, and then

730
00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:38,560
Speaker 1: like for two months after it, it'd be horrible so

731
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:42,960
Speaker 1: I can't do it anymore. But it's tough.

732
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 3: Man.

733
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:45,759
Speaker 1: If there was someone dealing with it right in front

734
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:47,799
Speaker 1: of me, I would just give him a hug and

735
00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:50,920
Speaker 1: just be like, it all depends on the kind of

736
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:55,239
Speaker 1: person you are. I wouldn't wish this on someone who

737
00:37:55,600 --> 00:38:00,319
Speaker 1: isn't like mentally strong, because it will destroy them. You know,

738
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:04,359
Speaker 1: I turned it into I would say, not a positive can.

739
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:05,640
Speaker 1: I hear it all the time? You know, I hear

740
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:09,000
Speaker 1: it right now. But if this didn't happen to me,

741
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have met my wife. I wouldn't have my

742
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 1: two babies. There's so much good stuff that happened to me,

743
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:19,920
Speaker 1: not because of it, but in spite of it. And

744
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:23,160
Speaker 1: it sucks. It's horrible. When I tell people about it,

745
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, Dune, that sucks. I'm like, whatever the reason.

746
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:29,839
Speaker 1: I don't talk about it a lot when people ask

747
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:32,839
Speaker 1: me about it, I don't complain about it. If I'm

748
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:35,360
Speaker 1: having a bad day with it, I don't talk about

749
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:38,440
Speaker 1: it because it just makes me hear it more. Yeah,

750
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:41,000
Speaker 1: if you get lost in it and you have that

751
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,720
Speaker 1: thought of oh shit, like it's never going to go away.

752
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:46,239
Speaker 1: It's there when you wake up it's there when you

753
00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:50,160
Speaker 1: go to bed, just trying to like rattle you. I

754
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:53,120
Speaker 1: just decided to turn it off. Like I still hear it,

755
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:56,400
Speaker 1: of course, but I decided to not let it affect me.

756
00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 1: Maybe one day it'll get so loud that I won't

757
00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 1: be able to take it, but I'm gonna live every

758
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:07,520
Speaker 1: day until that point the best I can. Obviously, I

759
00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:10,279
Speaker 1: take care of my ears a little better and I

760
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:12,840
Speaker 1: always have ear plugs on me. And it can translate

761
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:16,080
Speaker 1: to any other anything. I know what you went through.

762
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:18,880
Speaker 1: Some people might be like, oh man, I'm so sorry

763
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:21,600
Speaker 1: that happened, but you're like, it's made me who I am.

764
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:25,680
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, And it's something people can't

765
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:28,600
Speaker 1: see and they don't understand because you can't see it.

766
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 1: You know, it's not on me. It's maddening, and if

767
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:35,880
Speaker 1: I let it drive me crazy, it would, But the

768
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:38,080
Speaker 1: hell's the point? You know, might be living in a

769
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:42,880
Speaker 1: simulation anyway, So yeah, yeah, I mean, it's.

770
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 2: You're living proof bro that we have to be very

771
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 2: power stingy. We have to decide where it goes and

772
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:53,279
Speaker 2: when too many things get it when they don't deserve it,

773
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:56,320
Speaker 2: And that could go for something or someone or both,

774
00:39:56,600 --> 00:40:00,719
Speaker 2: you know, so keep freaking grinding, man, doing great shit.

775
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:02,360
Speaker 1: Thank you trying.

776
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's truly inspiring to hear your story and know

777
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:09,640
Speaker 3: how you continue to persevere and you are a rock star.

778
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:12,440
Speaker 3: You make people smile and you get them through one

779
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:15,520
Speaker 3: of the most important parts of their stomach. So yeah, Wes,

780
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:17,640
Speaker 3: thank you so much for being here with us on

781
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:18,360
Speaker 3: the Good Stuff.

782
00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:20,799
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. It was a great conversation. I

783
00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:23,320
Speaker 1: had a great time. And thank you for your service.

784
00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:27,680
Speaker 2: Hey, dude, you're worth it. Don't forget that. And thank

785
00:40:27,719 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 2: you for feeding souls, not only stomachs, but for feeding souls.

786
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:35,040
Speaker 1: Hey, that's all I do, man, That's what I'm here for.

787
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:38,839
Speaker 2: I dig it. If you listen to this and you're

788
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:41,680
Speaker 2: one of the people that suffer from tonight is just

789
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:43,560
Speaker 2: know that we're sending you mad.

790
00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 1: Love right now. You can't see.

791
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:48,280
Speaker 2: It like my physical wounds, but just know we respect

792
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:51,880
Speaker 2: you and Chef what's up. There's hope. You got to

793
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:54,520
Speaker 2: grind through it and it's not the end of the world.

794
00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:57,040
Speaker 2: You can overcome it. Absolutely.

795
00:40:57,360 --> 00:40:59,400
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for listening to the Good Stuff.

796
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 3: If this episod so touched you today, please share it

797
00:41:01,719 --> 00:41:03,760
Speaker 3: and be part of making someone else's day better.

798
00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:07,040
Speaker 2: Put on your badass capes like Chef West and God

799
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:10,120
Speaker 2: be great today, and remember you can't do epic stuff

800
00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:13,280
Speaker 2: without epic people. Thank you for listening to the good Stuff.

801
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:21,080
Speaker 2: The Good Stuff is executive produced by Ashley Schick, Jacob Schick,

802
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:25,319
Speaker 2: Leah Pictures and q Code Media. Hosted by Ashley Shick

803
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 2: and Jacob Shick, Produced by Nick Cassolini and Ryan Countzouse

804
00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:35,960
Speaker 2: post production supervisor Will Tindi. Music editing by Will heywood Smith,

805
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:38,440
Speaker 2: edited by Mike Robinson,